COLORFUL SISTERS

Southern Israel: The 4 Outfits We Made SPECIFICALLY for Our Trip to the Desert

What’s the perfect fusion of traveling and fashion? Lucky for us, we found the perfect way to combine two of our most favorite things. Are you ready to see the fashion designs we made SPECIFICALLY to match amazing locations in the Israeli desert?

Planning the Trip

We decided that it was time to take a little trip to Southern Israel. It had been so long since we last went on a trip to the beautiful south! We booked a few days in the southern resort city of Eilat and planned a FULLY packed 3-day itinerary.

Since Eilat is about a 4 hour drive from Tel Aviv (quite far in Israeli standards) we decided to fill the days as much as possible while we were in the south. There were so many incredible places that we wanted to visit, but never had the chance to. Now the perfect opportunity came up and we took it! Nitzana, Mitzpe Ramon, Ein Avdat, Shivta, Timna. These are just some of the many places we planned to visit. The next step was just to decide what unique outfits we would design specifically for the occasion.

Design Process

As we were planning to visit MANY places on our trip to the desert, we wanted to pick the most unique places for the handmade outfits. We also very thoroughly planned all of our outfits far in advance, so the places that we were lacking coordinating outfits, we decided to just make the perfect outfit.

Fabric - Fashion Design

We had plenty of time to go fabric shopping, but also wanted to use some of the fabrics in our fabric stash at home. One particularly beautiful little purple floral print seemed like it could be perfect for something, but we weren’t sure what. Since it was summertime, we were traveling to the beach, and we both always wanted white bathing suits, we bought some perfect white ribbed swimsuit fabric. Lastly we got a simple lavender that would be used for a truly unique place!

We searched on Pinterest in order to understand the colors of the scenery a bit better, finalized our plans, and began to sew the perfectly matching outfits.

The most epic locations that we picked were the white rock dunes of Nitzana, a unique canyon called Mitzpe Ramon at sunrise, and none other than Eilat itself! With our three fabrics ready to go, we started to work on patterns, and began!

Outfit #1 – Purple Ruffle Dress for the White Rock Dunes of Nitzana

Outfit #2 – Dreamy Floral Print Dress for Sunrise at Mitzpe Ramon

Outfit #3 & 4 – Matching White Bikinis for the Eilat Beach

Sewing and Creation

We had about a week to create all of the items but considering some of them were quite complicated, we still had to hurry. We started with the purple ruffle dress that we had in mind for the white rock dunes of Nitzana.

1. Purple Ruffle Dress

Fabric Fashion Design Dress

I once came across a beautifully feminine dress with seemingly endless ruffles online. It was about $50 from a shady Chinese website, so I decided to skip it. I did however take a screenshot and that is just what I used for the inspiration of this dress. It seemed like the perfect fit for this location, dreamy, feminine, and cloud like!

We didn’t plan the pattern out too much and decided to just wing it a bit! We cut out some squares, used a lot of shirring (a method used to make a stretchy and cute design on non-stretchy fabric), ENDLESS gathers for the rows and rows of ruffles, and completed after a few days. The ruffles took ages as they were gathered by hand, pinned to perfection, and sewn by machine. The end result was perfect and we moved onto our next project!

View the full blog post where this dress is featured: STUNNING GEM OF THE ISRAELI DESERT – NITZANA HILLOCKS | WHITE ROCK DUNES

2. Dreamy Floral Print Dress

For our second project, we began to make the dress out of the pretty floral print. Although this is also a cute purple fabric, the photoshoots were not planned to be together. It’s so funny because we have so little purple in our closet and all of the sudden we’re making two purple dresses.

We knew we wanted to make a top with shirring (similar to the last one) and very puffed sleeves. We however forgot to think through one tiny detail and instead of making it a dress, we had to make it a 2-piece. A skirt and a top separate! It ended up turning out for the best and being far more versatile for everyday use. And no one would be able to tell that it wasn’t one consecutive dress, especially with a belt added! Perfect and ready for the sunrise at Mitzpe Ramon!

3. Matching White Bikinis (#4 too)

Last but certainly not least, the two white bathing suits that we made for Eilat city! We were originally planning on taking photos with these suits at the dolphin center. It was always a dream of both of ours to have white bathing suits and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It’s always so hard to find the perfect suit in the store, so here we decided to make them!

The stretchy ribbed fabric we found was perfect, thick enough to not be see through, firm enough to make a professional suit, and yet stretchy enough to be super comfy. The bathing suits were actually probably the easiest to make of the bunch, especially since we have go to patterns for most of the bathing suit bottoms and just get creative with the tops.

We perused through some shops for ideas and began. For Brooke’s top, we actually used a vintage pattern that we had, adjusted it a bit, and began to make the top. I changed my mind a few times but eventually decided to make a pleated top with removable straps. About a day of sewing and we were finished!

Super excited for our excursion to the south, we packed up all the newly made items (and TONS of old ones for the other photoshoots) and left at 4am the next morning!

Photoshoots

And here are the end results!!! (At least some of them) The Nitzana and Mitzpe Ramon pictured turned out 1000x better than we even imagined. The locations were so beautiful and the outfits matched perfectly. Although we originally planned to have the white swimsuits in a shoot with the dolphins, the dolphins decided to hide for most of the day so the pictures didn’t turn out as perfect as we expected (but still cute). And now we have lots of new pieces to wear in our every lives!

1. Purple Ruffle Dress for the White Rock Dunes of Nitzana

2. Dreamy Floral Print Dress for Sunrise at Mitzpe Ramon

3. Matching White Bikinis for the Eilat Beach

To check out the full posts on any of these locations check out our Israel page here. Which outfit was your favorite?

Lots of Love and Safe Travels,

Danielle and Brooke, Colorful Sisters

37 Comments

  1. Seriously amazing👏🏻❤️ outfits and place both🤗

    1. Thank you so much dear 😊

  2. Wonderful idea to make your own outfits for a memorable trip. You both are amazing and you have great taste. I’m digging the long ties at the back of the bikinis. 💚🧡❤️

    1. Thank you!! It’s really lots of fun 😍

  3. Creative, beautiful, and talented! Your post makes me want to start sewing again. 😊

    1. Ooo you should!!! Would love to see what you make 😊

      1. Thank you for your vote of confidence. I used to sew up a storm, but it has been a while. 😁

      2. Never too late to get back to it 🙂

  4. I love #1. But all are so beautiful. Great job.

    1. Yess it’s one of my favorite dresses 😍😍😍💜

      1. I truly wish I could sew to come up with such beautiful and original creations. You girls have a great idea.

      2. Aww thanks so much!! A great way to started is by using outfits you like as inspiration and then just recreated! And then the creativity comes from there 🙂

  5. Clever girls. They are all fabulous but hands down I love the purple one the best.

    1. Thanks so much!!! The purple one is our favorite too! So many ruffles!

  6. I love them all! I am so impressed by your thoughtfulness and creativity. I’ve never even thought about my clothes in relation to the place I was going. I’m also terrible at sewing. So amazing! 💕

    1. Aww thanks so much!!! That really means a lot! And maybe you just need some more practice with sewing 🙂

  7. Very cute outfits. I like the idea of making clothes to suit a place! I make all my own clothing, but rarely have a chance to make things for special places and occasions. Looks like you’re have great fun!

  8. Wow, you two are amazing at creating your own styles and sewing them! What fun to have a “sewing sister”and the ability and money to travel. Best wishes for your future!

    1. Aww thank you so much! So sweet of you. We really do feel lucky to be able to travel and that we have each other 🙂

      1. You truly are lucky and talented!

  9. Making outfits for trips; love this! Beautiful makes for such a trip! <3

    1. Thanks so much dear!!

  10. How talented!! Good on you! Great outfits 😊

    1. Thank you so much!!!!

  11. Well, I would just love to live your life for a few months, how amazing! 😎

    1. Oh wow how sweet!!! ❤️

  12. Wow! Beautiful. I need to learn to sew now. You’re both very talented!

    1. Thank you so much!!! I hope you learn soon! 🙂 It’s so much fun!

    1. Thanks so much!!!

      1. You’re most welcome.

  13. Awww… Sisters! Your blogs are interesting 🥰🥰. You both look gorgeous in all the pics I’ve seen. Good that we are connected 🤗😍

    1. thank you so much !!! such sweet words 🙂

  14. Thanks for sharing Israel with us. It’s on my bucket list, but Japan has my daughter and grands. And, you make me miss sewing!

    1. of courseee! and i hope you can visit Israel one day and maybe start sewing again too? 🙂

  15. […] handmade items we’ve made for countries around the world, check out our posts on Israel: SOUTHERN ISRAEL: THE 4 OUTFITS WE MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR OUR TRIP TO THE DESERT and Turkey: THE 3 OUTFITS I DESIGNED AND CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR MY TRIP TO […]

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